John Oliver Buys Russell Crowe’s ‘Cinderella Man’ Jockstrap To Rescue Alaska’s Last Blockbuster
John Oliver and Last Week Tonight gang coughed up $7K in the winning bid for that jockstrap Russell Crowe wore in Cinderella Man. The HBO host wants to send it to the last remaining Blockbuster store in Anchorage, Alaska, to help save it from extinction.
The buy, revealed in Sunday’s show, may not have been a surprise to regular viewers of the show who are familiar with its previous purchase of auctioned-off dead-Presidents wax figures. The pricetag, however, was.
A few weeks ago on his show, Oliver had noted the actor was about to hold an The Art of Divorce auction to celebrate the end of his marriage, putting up for bidding various artifacts from his movie career. Items for bidding included what one TV news talent called the “groin protector” Crowe wore in Cinderella Man. Before auction, the estimated value of the item had been set at $500.
It sold for $7K, which, Oliver noted, “is a big price to pay just to find out what Crow’s balls smelled like in 2005.”
The HBO show also bought Crowe’s director chair from American Gangster, the vest he wore in Les Miserables, and a hood he wore in Robin Hood. ” It was 4 AM, and you know what happens when you start online shopping late at night,” Oliver explained of the binge bidding.
Oliver kicked off the fun reveal explaining that a few Blockbusters had survived in Alaska long after they had disappeared in the continental U.S. because of slower streaming services and more expensive rates in that state, but they had slowly died off.
‘To the manager of the only remaining Blockbuster in Anchorage, Alaska: Just call us in next 48 hour and we will send it to you,” Oliver announced.
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